(1/11) Here is Wilbur Ross’ calendar, which shows his meeting with Bill Furman, the CEO of Greenbrier Companies, in the White House. 
(2/11) At the time of that meeting, Wilbur Ross had a hidden interest in Greenbrier Companies. You can see how that worked here.
(3/11) I thought it was strange that Ross was meeting with the CEO of a company in which he held an interest, so I reached out to the commerce department about it on July 5. This was the response three days later.
(4/) I wanted to be extra sure about that response because Greenbrier had been lobbying other parts of the government on issues that Ross handled, like NAFTA and trade with China. You can see that here: disclosures.house.gov/ld/ldxmlreleas…
(5/11) In fact, exactly 1 minute before the scheduled start for the May 18, 2017 meeting, Ross’ commerce department put out a statement about how Ross would be helping President Trump renegotiate NAFTA.
(6/11) So I asked what “no items specific to Greenbrier” meant. I wanted to know whether they really did not talk business. This was what the commerce department told me.
(7/11) 12 days after that White House meeting, Greenbrier’s CEO wrote a letter to the commerce dept about an investigation into steel imports by the commerce department. The commerce dept.'s first statement now looks misleading. And there are questions if the second one is true.
(8/11) On 5/31/17, day after Furman sent the letter, Ross sold a personal stake in Greenbrier. Since Ross had not previously disclosed any stake, it was hard to tell whether he sold his entire interest. extapps2.oge.gov/201/Presiden.n…
(9/11) On 11/1/17, Ross signed a sworn statement saying he divested everything he promised. So it seemed like he had probably gotten rid of all of his Greenbrier stock. But then he admitted he had not. extapps2.oge.gov/201/Presiden.n…
(10/11) Here is how the Office of Government Ethics describes the criminal conflicts of interest statute.
(11/11) And here’s the story. Please let me know if you have any questions about sourcing or Ross’ ethical/legal issues. forbes.com/sites/danalexa…
